The Freedom of Speech

What better way to start off a blog than with a talk about the freedom of speech. Free speech is something everyone in the United States is very privileged to hold. It allows you to voice your opinion on a subject, no matter what that subject may be. It can range from your rather harsh opinions of the guy who works two cubicles down to your love of bagels. The only thing you really can't do is tell lies with the intent to defame someone else or make threats of violence. Well, I suppose you can do all of those things, you are just likely to receive a punishment. Of course, a blog is a great example of that, you can literally say anything you want. While I am new to the game, I am already enjoying my blog. However, in order to keep this tiny piece of joy in an otherwise shitty world there is a price that must be paid. That price is understanding that other people may have things to say that you disagree with or find absolutely detestable. There is one group out there today that is almost universally hated. The Westboro Baptist Church.

aw, look at the little hate mongers

If you've been in a coma for the past year, you may not know about these guys. They are a small church, consisting almost entirely of one family of people, who support the idea that the reason people die in America is because god hates that we allow homosexuals to live here. 

Yeah. That message is a little more hate-filled than that of your average picketing party or group of religious zealots. But, they don't stop there. To add salt to the already sore wound that is their message, they picket outside the funerals of fallen soldiers holding signs like the ones above and shouting hate-based propaganda. A lot of people take offense to their actions and many groups have found ways to drive them off. However, there is one way that sparked a lot of discussion on our rights as Americans. Albert Snyder

Cpl. Albert Snyder attempted to take them to court to sue for damages.

Snyder made the claim that they turned his sons funeral into a circus. Fair enough, that is pretty much what they tried to do. However, they did it from at least 1,000 feet away and on public property. Snyder's case made it's way all the way to the Supreme Court and it was upheld that the Westboro Baptist Church had every right to picket funerals and could not be sued for damages. The hate mongers at the WBC won a national court case saying they could continue to anger basically everyone else in the country because it was covered under the freedom of speech. There were a lot of people out there truly upset by this news. My question to those people is this: What did you really think was going to happen? 

Did you really expect the Supreme Court to set the precedent that any speech that upsets any group of people is unconstitutional? You see, it's situations like these where we have to pay for our freedom of speech. You may not like what the WBC had to say. You may think that it's among the most wretched things you've ever seen. However, you have to recognize that the Westboro Baptist Church has the right to keep on picketing funerals while shouting that "God Hates Fags."